Posted on 28/05/2025
A meeting room provides endless opportunities. On the one hand, it could be a place where you and your team waste an hour going over points that could have been covered within an email. On the other hand, time spent in a meeting could lead to a significant breakthrough that catapults the business towards incredible new success. Naturally, you want to achieve the latter, as wasting time is equal to wasting money in the world of business. So, how do you use meeting rooms effectively? If you’re planning on booking a meeting room, use these tips to increase its effectiveness.
A big aspect of meeting room management is ensuring you book the room in advance. If you have a virtual office that offers meeting room services, that doesn’t mean you can stroll up on any day and expect it to be free! Instead, you should organise the room booking before you make any additional meeting plans, as this will secure the place, meaning your meeting attendees don’t show up to a room they cannot even enter.
While the people invited undoubtedly matter more than the meeting room itself, that doesn’t mean you should pay no attention to the environment. A good meeting room should encourage open conversation and creative thinking. There should be plenty of natural light, but also the ability to adjust the lighting if necessary (such as shutting the blinds to better see a PowerPoint presentation). Regarding size, that all depends on how many people you want to invite to the meeting. Then, there’s the matter of accessibility – can all of your attendees get to and from the room with ease?
Choose the best meeting room by choosing virtual offices that match your needs. Consider décor, location, customer service, and any extra services offered.
What do you want the meeting room for? Common reasons to use a meeting room include:
· Brainstorming sessions
· Meetings with potential clients
· Sharing important company information
· Solving challenges
Try to be as specific as possible, thinking about your end goal. The more purpose your meeting has beforehand, the more successful the meeting will be.
It’s not always easy to get everyone on your team into one singular place, particularly if you run a virtual office. So, don’t hinge all your meeting plans on being able to gather all attendees together in one meeting room; instead, let video conferencing into your meeting room. Start by ensuring there is plenty of physical space for the attendees that can be there in-person. Then, think about the high-quality technology to converse virtually with remote attendees, including microphones and cameras. This way, everyone can converse in real-time.
What layout does the meeting room provide? It’s important you know this before going in, as you need to work with the layout rather than against it. The best setup depends on the purpose of your meeting, so keep that in mind when setting up. If you want to run a brainstorming session that encourages creativity, a more circular layout may work well – one where everyone can contribute equally.
If you are hosting a speedy 20-minute meeting, comfort is probably far down your list. However, lengthier meetings (one hour plus) require you to consider attendees’ comfort. Consider factors like temperature (it would be hard for your attendees to think straight if it’s too hot or cold), the chairs, how much space there is, and overall décor. If you are planning a meeting that will go into the dark evening, you could even include blankets and cushions to keep the momentum going.
To truly make the most of a meeting room, you must invite the right people. That is especially important if you have more team members than you do chairs in the meeting room. For a well-refined invite list, consider the purpose of your meeting and the type of conversations you want to have. For example, if you need to host a brainstorming session for ideas on a new product, invite your most creative and innovative team members.
When it comes to making the most of a meeting room, organisation is essential. One way to ensure you stay organised is by implementing a smooth booking system – one that can centralise it all. That way, you can quickly and easily book the meeting room without obstacles.
Sometimes, meetings end up on a different path from the original plan, and this isn’t always a bad thing, as it can lead to more creativity. However, that doesn’t mean the meeting shouldn’t have a plan. Before your attendees step into the conference room, have a fixed meeting plan that details everything you want to cover, including the overarching goals. The amount of work this requires depends on the type of meeting you plan on hosting – for example, it might mean creating a schedule for when each attendee gets to speak or perhaps do a planned presentation.
Have you had less-than-successful meetings in the past? If so, you can learn from those mistakes. Perhaps the layout wasn’t conducive to the most creative environment – in this case, you can shake up the layout next time for better results. Or, perhaps you didn’t book the meeting room for long enough and had to end the meeting before it had reached its natural conclusion. If so, you know to book the room for a lengthier period next time (it’s better to have more time allowance than too little!). Don’t stick to something that doesn’t work – figure out why your last meetings didn’t hit the mark and do better next time.
In the end, you want to leave the meeting room feeling like you’ve succeeded at something and, hopefully, reached your goal. To do this, you need to host your business meeting effectively, ensuring that everything is thought about in advance, from the room’s layout to the invite list. So, consider everything we have listed above when searching for the best meeting spaces.
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